freeCodeCamp/guide/english/accessibility/accessibility-tools-for-web-developers/index.md

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Accessibility Tools for Web Developers

Accessibility Tools for Web Developers

There are many tools and online resources that can help you to ensure that your web application meets all of the accessibility requirements.

General

• Accessibility Developer Tools

  This is a Google Chrome extension that will add a new Accessibility sidebar pane in the Elements tab to the Chrome Developer tools. This new pane will display any properties that are relevant to the accessibility aspect of the element that you are currently inspecting. This extension also adds an accessibility audit that can be used to check whether the current web page violates any accessibility rules.

• aXe

  This Google Chrome extension can find accessibility defects on your web page.

• Pa11y

  Free, open source program that allows you to run automatic daily accessibilty testing on any number of pages

• WAVE Evaluation Tool

  Another great Google Chrome accessibility extension that provides visual feedback via icons and indicators directly on your webpage.

• tota11y

  An accessibility visualization toolkit that checks how your website performs with assistive technologies.

• AccessLint

  A GitHub app that checks your pull requests for accessibility issues.

• WAVE

  This is another Chrome (and Firefox) extension that allows you to find accessibility defects on your web page.

Color Contrast

• Color Safe Palette Generator

  This website helps you create a color palette that is based on the WCAG guidelines for text and background contrast ratios.

• Check My Colours

  This website checks if your website meets the accessibility requirements for color and contrast.

• Color Oracle

  This application simulates color blindness. It is available on Windows, Mac and Linux.

• Accessible Color Palette Builder

  This website allows you to edit a color palette and will create a table showing all of the possible color combinations, telling you which ones are accessible and which combinations to avoid using.

• WebAIM Color Contrast Checker

  This website allows you to enter in color hex values for foreground and background to evaluate the contrast ratio. You can also adjust colors entered to get the necessary contrast ratio.

• Randoma11y Color Generator

  This is an ongoing app project that randomly generates AA accessible web color palettes and allows end users to up vote or down vote color combinations. This site is good for Web Designers/Web Developers when starting a project that does not have predetermined colors.

• Color contrast Checker

  WebAIM offers complete web accessibility services. Regardless of the type or size of your web site, WebAIM can help ensure that your site is accessible and usable to those with disabilities.

Screen Reader

A screen reader is a software application with assistive technology that attempts to convey what people with normal eyesight see on a display to their users via non-visual means, like text-to-speech. Developers can utilize a screen reader to understand how a webpage can be made accessible to such people and develop the page accordingly. Some of the most well known and widely used screen readers are:

• NVDA

  NVDA(Non Visual Desktop Access) Screen reader is a Free & Open-source downloadable Screen Reader software for Windows OS.

• JAWS

  JAWS(Job Access With Speech) is a computer screen reader program which is available as licensed software for Windows.

• a11yproject

  This site provides pracical guides and examples for implementing accessible features and components during web development. The site contains how-tos, myths, tips, and recommended accessibility tools. The project is community driven and can be contributed to on Github.

• ChromeVox

  ChromeVox is a Chrome Browser extension which can be used to render Webpages as text-to-speech.

More Resources

You can find many more tools for accessible web design on this list made by the University of Minnesota Duluth.